Aldi Nord introduces the checkout-free store in Utrecht, with sensors and 475 cameras.
Customers put the automatically registered goods in their backpack and check out.
It couldn't be easier, says the head of state.
For real?
In fact, there is no queue at the checkout.
But customers have to download an app, link it to their credit card, have their phone with them at all times, and the technology has to work.
If something goes wrong, there is more effort for the complaint.
The shops are sealed off with locks.
You know that from the Dutch chip card for trains and buses.
New technology is good when it creates benefits.
But cash remains easier;
it was not for nothing that it was once introduced as a universal medium of exchange.
More serious: Another piece of anonymity has been lost, a digital trail has been laid.
Many take it for granted - but the freedom not to pay by card must remain.
She keeps disappearing in the Netherlands.
Fighting back may be a rearguard action.
This does not make the warnings false.
Please shop elsewhere, also in other Aldi branches - and refuse this shop.